


this love came back to me

by disarmlow



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Jealous Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Jealous Charming, Jealous Robin, Jealousy, Multi, Some Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 21:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4850414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disarmlow/pseuds/disarmlow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan has been missing for eight months, the darkness banishing her to an unfamiliar realm. While her loved ones mourn, Emma desperately tries to get back to them. The spell does bring her back to Storybrooke, but with unexpected results.</p><p>Canon Divergence from Season Four finale.</p><p>Co-Written by the fabulous and amazing <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/muchmoxie/">muchmoxie</a>!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. this whole kingdom is wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Around month five, the darkness started talking to her.

_this whole kingdom is wrong_

* * *

 

Emma Swan had been gone eight months. The first month, Storybrooke came together and exhausted all magic and options to locate her, only Gold shaking his head and saying that if the Dark One didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be.

The Crocodile was right. Killian had spent all his nights (and most days, to be honest.. 5 PM meant nothing to a pirate) at Granny's, drinking rum until he couldn't see her green eyes looking up at him, couldn't feel her hand brushing his cheek.

He couldn't bear to be alone until he was staggering out of the bar, hating all the sympathetic looks the denizens of Storybrooke gave him every night.

He hated them because they had their loves. They had their happy endings.

All the same, he went back, every day, because the draw of all those happy endings was that he got to be as close to Emma as he could be. He could remember being happy.

* * *

 

Snow White spent most of her days sitting at the kitchen table, watching the sun go up and then down, rarely sleeping, a box of tissues nearby even though her tears had dried up months ago.

Charming tried to help her, sweet husband that he was, but he wasn't enough. He wasn't her daughter. She'd lost her so many times, but this one seemed like a swift punch to the throat. She could have lost her forever, to the darkness, and she couldn't help feeling partially at fault.

"Neal is crying for the breast, Snow..." Charming cajoled, today, hoping to snap her out of her depression with the help of their youngest child.

"He's over a year old, it won't hurt him to be weaned. Give him a bottle." Snow said, not as sharply as she had sounded to him in the months past.

He'd told her, time and time again, that he would always find her. Now, he couldn't. She was locked away inside herself, inside her pain, and although he shared the same heart with her, he couldn't get through to her. She had become distant, and had sat at this table more nights than in their bed.

"Please, Snow..."

"Emma hardly had any breastmilk, and look how she turned out," Snow said, and chuckled.

The chuckle was a dark and broken thing, full of unshed tears and so unlike the warm chuckle Snow usually had. Charming's shared heart ached in his chest, and, defeated, he went to warm a bottle for Neal.

* * *

Regina felt terribly guilty. So much of Storybrooke was mourning for the Savior, and in her own way, she was too.

She couldn't help being so deliriously happy, though, and therein was the guilt.

She finally, finally, even with the complication of her pregnant sister, had her happy ending. She had Henry, and wonder of all wonders, Robin of Locksley, her true love, the man she'd run away from in a bar a lifetime ago, was sitting on her couch, rubbing her feet and ankles, and smiling at her with that special smile that she knew was full of love.

Regina, the Evil Queen, was loved by a man. A good, and honest thief who had only betrayed his wife for the love of Regina.

Then again, she hadn't really been his wife, had she?

Regina smiled brilliantly at him, but her smile turned down a little at the corners.

"What's wrong, milady?" He placed a hand high up on her knee, looking at her with concern.

"Just thinking about Emma. And Snow, and Charming, and Hook - all the people that miss the Savior."

Robin nodded, not dropping her gaze. "You miss her too?"

"Yes, but - God, Robin, I'm so happy!"

Robin laughed, low in his chest. "You deserve to be happy, Regina."

"Not when so many others are suffering!"

"You would be a much better queen now than you were," he said somberly, and when she kicked at him, he caught her ankle in his hand and kissed the bone there.

"Don't you feel guilty?"

"No. I have Roland, and Henry, and finally - you. I love you, Regina. This is my happy ending."

Regina smiled at him again, this time with both corners up, and slid into his lap. As she put her lips to his, she thought that wherever Emma was, maybe she was fighting the darkness. Fighting to come back, as she had.

* * *

 

The Dark One definitely did want to be found. The trouble was, she didn't know where she was. She didn't speak the language, and she'd been forced to use magic to conjure food and clothing for herself, although she was afraid that the more she used it, the darker her heart would become.

The people of the realm she found herself in were mostly farmers and hunters, simple folk with no royal hierarchy to upset them.

The first month, Emma had worked diligently to get back, testing her dark powers only occasionally as a means to an end - that end, getting back to Storybrooke and her loved ones.

Henry. Her parents. Killian. God, Killian, after they'd finally admitted their love. It was awful to be lost after that.

She thought about them, about how they'd be working so hard to find her.

Around month five, the darkness started talking to her. _They've stopped looking for you_ , it hissed. _They're gone, forever. They don't want you back. Surely Killian has found another, and of course Henry has Regina and your parents have baby Neal - you've been replaced._

After month six, the darkness changed its tune. _Or maybe they're all dead_ , it whispered in the dead of night, when the sounds of crackling fire and talking amongst the villagers kept her awake... and thoughts of Storybrooke, her home. _Maybe they're all dead or trapped in a hell realm similar to Neverland... otherwise they would have found you by now._

Emma tried not to listen, to focus on the white magic inside her, the goodness, but the darkness only grew louder. She thought that now she understood what had made Rumplestiltskin give in to the darkness, abandon his son. He had given in.

But she wouldn't. She spent her days learning the language, talking to the shaman in broken words, working her way toward a spell (or a curse) to bring her back to Storybrooke. However, this village knew nothing about portals or realms. They were where they had always been.

They did have magic, though. She'd seen the shaman heal a child with a head wound from falling with a burst of white light. She'd seen women crying over lost children and husbands suddenly fall asleep when the shaman touched them.

So slowly, over the months, she learned that this village didn't need dark magic. She didn't reveal to them that she was the Dark One. She told the shaman in her limited vocabulary that she had been born with white magic, and he nodded as if he understood. Although they didn't understand portals, the shaman did have a book, filled with spells. He said this was how he healed the sick and comforted the grieving.

She could barely read the words, but she made out a spell called something like the restoration of love.

This seemed to be her only hope, but it took a lot of white magic. Emma wondered if she could do it while the darkness whispered to her, telling her to quit, to give up and give in.

She enlisted the shaman to help her. He was wary, but agreed. It took a month to gather all the supplies. A lily, twisted to turn towards the sun. A tree frog that was found near a meadow. The happy tears of a new bride. A piece of the placenta from a newborn baby girl. And finally, and most disturbingly, grave dust from a married couple, buried together.

All the ingredients went in a pot, with the frog alive but now covered in placenta and grave dust.

Emma was nervous. She didn't want the darkness to come rising up from nowhere and ruin the spell, turn it into a curse. That might kill everyone in the village!

The shaman wasn't nervous. He'd done this spell before, with happy results. He says a few words over the pot and places his hand over it, white light spilling from his fingertips. He motions Emma over. She places her hand on top of his and tries to think of only happy things, reunited with her parents, hugging Henry, kissing Killian. Gray starts to spill from her fingertips, and the shaman has his eyes closed and doesn't notice. Emma tries to reel it back but the light is charcoal gray, nonetheless. She grits her teeth and thinks of only happy times, and it begins to lighten.

She feels a wind whip around her, but she keeps her eyes closed. When the wind ceases, she opens her eyes, hoping with all her heart to be in Storybrooke.

Instead, she sees the shaman, and in the background, the row of village huts.

She goes to sleep with a heavy heart and the darkness whispering to her.


	2. dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Seems you brought company, love."

_dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough_

* * *

 

The first thing Emma sees upon waking is pavement, hot against her cheek.

She stands up and looks around. She's in an alley of some sort. A wave of panic floods over her. This isn't the village she's been living in. Where is she?

The sky is just beginning to brighten as she steps out from the alley. She squints her eyes to see the lettering on a sign across the street.

 _Granny's Diner_.

She stumbles backwards as the words register in her mind. She tries her best to continue standing but her legs suddenly don't feel strong enough to hold her up.

But it doesn't seem to matter much, because they carry her to Granny's door anyway. She takes a peek through the window and her breath catches in her throat when she sees Killian and Henry sitting in a booth, talking as if nothing has changed.

She strains to hear what they're saying.

"I was thinking... what about Operation Cygnet? A cygnet is-"

"A baby swan. I know," Killian says as he offers Henry a pained smile. "That will do, my boy."

She sees Henry drop his head and sigh like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Her heart physically hurts for him. She's his mother, she should have been here all these months. She's already missed so much.

"What if we never find her?" he says, so softly that she barely hears it. "What if that was the last time I'll ever see my mom?"

Something seems to change, then. Killian rests his hand on Henry's right shoulder.

"Look at me."

Henry looks up quickly.

"I once told your grandfather that I would go to the end of the world for her, or time. I meant that. I'll always mean that. If I have to spend the rest of my life searching for her, I will," Killian's voice shakes, but his eyes hold a gleam of determination.

Then he does something that Emma wouldn't have expected from him. He drops his hand and brings it to the nape of Henry's neck, kissing him gently on the forehead.

Henry smiles weakly when he pulls away. "So Operation Cygnet is in effect then, huh?"

"Aye," Killian chokes out a laugh.

Her hand finds the door before she can stop herself, the ringing of the bell so loud among the hushed voices of the diner. It takes a moment for anyone to notice a newcomer, but soon enough, all eyes are on her. The shocked expression on nearly every face is almost overwhelming. She's never been used to attention and she feels the need to run and hide.

Killian and Henry catch up last, their heads turning, and everything seems to go into slow motion when their eyes catch hers.

"MOM!" Henry yells, running so fast that he's really just a flash, and then he collides into her, his arms wrapping around her tightly. He's grown taller in the months that she's been gone, and it brings tears to her eyes.

Killian hasn't stood up. He's still seated in the booth, unmoving.

" _If_ _you look at me any harder, you're gonna drill a hole in my head_ ," she had told him once, when his heart had been missing from his chest. Is that what it had felt like when she'd vanished, only a dagger left for him to hold?

"Hey, kid," she laughs, but it sounds broken. She hugs him back as firmly as she can. "I really missed you."

He leans back and she uses her thumbs to wipe the tears rolling down his cheeks. "Are you okay? Where were you?"

She glances at Killian and wonders when he'll stop looking at her with those sad, haunted eyes. She smiles at Henry. "Uh... it's hard to explain. I'm okay, though. Can you go get mom and dad, tell them I'm back?"

He looks hesitant to leave her, but nods and gives her a grin. She doesn't remember ever seeing him so carefree. 

He's out of the door in a moment, and the bell rings as loudly as it ever has as she makes her way towards the booth.

Neither of them look the same, really. His hair is messier than usual and his eyes have a sickly red tint. She knows that the dark magic she's inherited has come out in ways that she can't fix - her hair has shocks of white here and there and the skin on her hands and arms always have an unnatural sparkle to them. She's paler than she's ever been. But they're alive, and that's more than she could ever ask for.

She laces her fingers through his and tugs his hand toward her. He stands up and she leans her forehead against his. She closes her eyes and gives herself a moment to soak it all in.

"Emma," he says, her name so much like a prayer on his lips.

She opens her eyes. Her tears have already dried on her cheeks, but his are just forming, anguished and heavy.

She kisses him, then. It's soft, just a feather light touch of her lips against his. There's nothing hungry in it, but it feels as if he's welcoming her home. When they part, she takes his hand again and leads him outside.

They stand side by side, their hands intertwined so tightly that she's fairly certain the hounds of hell could not separate them. His rings shine brilliantly in the sun and she smiles.

He turns to her and his eyes are so dark, like he hasn't seen the light in years. "Is this real?"

She moves to cup his face and stare into his eyes. "It's real. I'm real."

He lets out a heavy breath, like he's been waiting to release it for an eternity, and his head falls on her shoulder as he swiftly puts his arms around her. She feels her shoulder grow wet and then the sobs wrack his body, the sounds coming from him making her heart break more by the second. She kisses his neck and holds him, waiting for him to speak.

When he finally does, he pulls away and wipes at his cheeks as if he doesn't want her to see. There's something oddly endearing about it.

"I'm a bloody mess, Swan," he remarks, but everything about him is lighter.

She shrugs and smirks at him. "That makes two of us."

She expects him to make a joke about it or smile, but she sees his face grow concerned instead. He's looking behind her.

"Killian? What is it?"

He flicks his eyes back to her face. "Seems you brought company, love."

He gestures his hook and she turns.

Trailing over to Granny's are three men she's never seen before, dressed in clothes that would be at home in the Enchanted Forest.

She hears the bell ring loudly behind her, and sees Ruby burst out of the door, running toward the handsome, dark haired man (who is really little more than a boy). She throws her arms around him, exclaiming, "Peter!"

 _Peter? As in Peter and the Wolf?_ Emma looked at the other men, no recognition dawning on her.

Then she notices a fourth man, brushing off his slacks and walking toward the others. He has a mop of dirty blond hair, and is wearing some sort of vest, more modern than the others. As he lifts his head, Emma finds herself looking into Graham Humbert's dark blue eyes.

Emma opens her mouth to speak, but faints backwards into Killian's arms, instead.


	3. can you keep a secret? do you promise not to tell?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Swan? You want to introduce me?"

_do you want to know a secret? do you promise not to tell?_

* * *

 

Killian lowers her to the floor. In an instant, the man in the Sheriff's vest is by her side, smoothing her white streaked hair from her face.

"I take it you two know each other, mate?" Killian says, a little bite in his tone despite his concern for Emma. She had likely been through so much during her time away.

"Yes! Of course! She was there when... I remembered... her kiss... made me remember."

At the word kiss, Killian's head shoots up from Emma's face. "What?"

"I think maybe... it was true love's kiss. Then I... I... died. Can you wake her?"

His hand is still on her face, and although Killian is confused, anger also boils in him, seeing this stranger touch his Swan so.

"Yeah, maybe if you back up a little," he says, and there is no mistaking the bite in his tone this time.

The stranger doesn't seem to notice, just reluctantly stands up and steps backward a couple of steps.

Emma came to in an instant, sputtering and sitting up straight as if she'd been drowning. Her eyes big and unfocused, she looks at the stranger first.

Killian feels a stab of jealousy deep in his gut. Who the hell was this bloke?

"Are you all right?" he asks first, trying to keep his voice quiet and concerned.

"I'm... fine..."

She didn't even bloody look at him.

She rose, slowly, and reaches out a hand for the stranger to help her up.

Killian's blood was boiling, thoughts racing in his mind as if she'd never returned. True love's kiss? Died?

"Graham! How... how are you-"

"I don't rightly know." The stranger... Graham, smiled at Emma, and Killian wanted to knock his teeth out.

"You were dead! You were dead; I was there!"

"I know. But I'm back, now, Emma, I-"

Graham reaches out to touch her face, and Killian clears his throat loudly.

"Swan? You want to introduce me?"

"Oh!" She seems flustered, taking a step back towards Killian.

"Graham, this is... Hook - Killian, I mean. Killian, Graham is... the Huntsman."

Killian grits his teeth when she calls him Hook.

"Where did you two meet, then?" He's struggling not to yell.

"I was the deputy; he was the Sheriff... before the curse was broken."

Graham looks at the two of them, realization slowly building in his eyes. "I guess... I've been gone a while."

Killian grins and throws a possessive arm around Emma's shoulders. His grin turns to a scowl as she throws it off.

"Killian!" She reprimands.

"What, love?"

"Graham and I - we -" She stutters.

"True love's kiss - I know. Your friend informed me while you were out." He can't keep the bitterness out of his tone. All this time away from her, and now this?

"I don't know about that," she hedges, but the blush on her sparkling face is enough for Killian.

"Should I go, then, and leave you two to catch up?" The words come out of him like acid.

Emma glares at him.

Before she's able to speak a word, Snow and David burst onto the scene, Henry behind them.

Their eyes are only on Emma, and Killian can see that he won't be getting any more answers. He crosses his arms across his chest and sulks, not caring that everyone will notice.

* * *

 

"Oh my God, Emma!" Snow's arms are around her before she has time to process Graham's return. She pulls back and cradles Emma's face as if she's a newborn child. "Where were you?"

"I don't really know, actually. I tried so hard to get back to you guys, and I cast a spell, but-"

"I'm just so glad you're okay," Snow cuts in, her face soaked with tears. Her nose is red and her face is puffy, but she's giving her such a sweet, hopeful smile that Emma can't help  
but return it.

Then David is coming to stand beside Snow, crushing Emma's head to his chest. He's as calm as ever, but when she peeks up, she sees a hint of tears in his eyes.

"Welcome home," he says, rubbing her back soothingly.

A moment ticks by and Emma sees Snow's jaw drop. "Graham?"

Snow steps away to see if her eyes are deceiving her. They aren't. David trails behind her, too stunned to speak.

"Uh. Hi," Graham says shyly. "I seem to be alive. For some reason."

"I see that," she replies, but she's smiling. She walks up and gives him a quick hug and he pats her on the back awkwardly before pulling away.

"Snow, is that you?" someone asks. It's one of the men that Emma hadn't recognized.

Snow's head whips around and so does David's, but her face quickly forms into a wide grin.

"Arthur!" she throws her arms around him and he lifts her off the ground effortlessly. "How... Regina killed you."

David drowns out their conversation soon after that, but he certainly notices when Arthur plants a rather intimate kiss on her cheek and his hands clench instinctively at his sides.

God, she even blushes, and she's grinning at him as if he's the sun.

He might as well be foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog, but he doesn't really care.

He feels someone elbow him in the side and he looks over to Killian, who gives him a sympathetic smile.

"Looks like we're in the same position here, mate," he inclines his head toward Graham. "Feels awful, doesn't it?"

Killian sounds hurt. And as much as he hates to admit it, he is, too. Still, he doesn't want to answer him.

"You know him?" David asks Snow, struggling to keep the beast inside him at bay.

"Yes! Yes of course - oh... I didn't tell you, did I? That's so weird!"

Snow glances at him, but her smile is all for Arthur, and David clenches his fists so tight he might have drawn blood.

"No... you didn't." He's seething, and he knows Snow can tell, they share the same heart, after all, but she doesn't hide her smile.

"We were... buddies," she says, and something about the way she says it makes him think there's something more, something else she isn't saying.

"Kissing buddies," Arthur says, and his voice is deep with a slight accent. He throws Snow a grin and his teeth are damnably white and straight.

"Kissing buddies!" he's almost shouting, but his wife still doesn't tear her eyes away from her... her... kissing buddy. Even thinking it is white hot in his head.

"Sometimes more, I guess." Snow chuckles, and Arthur places a hand over her mouth playfully.

David can't take it anymore. "We need to go inside Granny's. Right... now."

Snow sends a sheepish smile at Arthur, who smiles brilliantly back, and David all but drags her into the building.

The bell goes off and citizens of Storybrooke look at him like he's lost his mind. He nearly has.

"What... the hell... was that, Snow?"

"Oh, Charming," she says, smiling, her pet name for him sounding fake. "Don't get all caveman on me. We were friends. I was sixteen."

"Sixteen? How old is he?"

"I don't know... thirty? It was a different place, David, you know that." She's getting huffy, now. "I guess you could call him my first love."

David is wounded. "I thought I was your first love."

"Charming." She places a hand on his arm. "You're my first adult love, my true love. Don't be angry."

"More than kissing?" He hisses, her true love comment only helping a little.

"Just... I don't know... petting. It was childish. We were young."

" _You_ were young."

"He was in Robin's band. Robin was away at his wedding, and I met Arthur - he was a poacher, and I was trying to kill a deer to eat - anyway, it doesn't matter. We were friends, maybe a little more. Then Regina came and murdered him trying to get to me. He died in a fireball. It was awful."

"Why didn't you ever tell me about this boyfriend?"

She shrugged, her hand still on his arm. "I don't know. It was traumatic. I try not to think about it."

"Did you love him?" David's tone turns from angry to hurt, to almost desperate.

"I was a child! I didn't know what love was. I thought I did. It certainly hurt when Regina took him away from me."

That isn't an answer David likes to hear. Snow finally cajoles him a little out of his horrible mood with kisses and caresses, but David doesn't like the fact one bit that Arthur is looking in the window, averting his eyes when David looks over.

He'll be watching him.


	4. because we always have a choice, even when it seems like we don't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She fell asleep and now she's dreaming... but she's not. He's here, flesh and blood. For a moment, she's worried that he'll attack her - that he'll be as he was last time, breathing but in an agonized state.

_because we always have a choice, even when it seems like we don't_

* * *

 

Emma feels completely and utterly lost. The darkness whispers to her, boiling inside her as if she's on fire. _You screwed up again, Emma. Like always. You ruin everything and everyone around you. Look at your father! Look at Killian!_

She can't figure out why the spell backfired this way, and she doesn't know what to do about Graham. Occasionally, he gives her these looks that are a little more than friendly and Killian undoubtedly notices it - she wants to comfort him and assure him that it's him she wants to be with, especially after the hell he's went through. And it's true. He is her choice. But she does care about Graham.

She remembers their last moments together. How he held her face in his hands, tears streaking down his handsome face, looking at her as if she were the only person in the world. He'd been the first man to do that. Not even Neal could give her that kind of attention.

Whatever they had, whatever they would have had... it hadn't been finished. Everything had been left unsaid. And to ignore him when he was back from the dead, when he was confused and alone, seemed wrong. No time has passed for him. They definitely need to talk.

But now isn't the time to talk to either of them. Her mom and that Arthur guy still seem pretty cozy, if she's honest, and her dad's more pissed off than Killian, which is saying something.

When Snow and David emerge from Granny's, Emma notices that Snow is going out of her way to avoid Arthur's wandering gaze, but still somehow standing near him. Emma's father is not amused.

"Do you know why this happened?" Snow gestures around them to the new but previously deceased Storybrooke residents.

She sighs. "Not a clue. I was pretty desperate and I didn't know the language that the people in the village spoke. I cast a spell called the restoration of love, but it was roughly translated. It was more literal than I thought."

Snow nods. "We should ask Regina if she's heard of it before, maybe she can tell us something about it."

Emma is about to reply when the last man she hadn't recognized, someone dressed in stable boy clothes, steps beside Snow. "Regina? Do you know her?"

* * *

 

Regina rests her head against Robin's chest as they settle in for a movie on the couch. She'd decided to introduce Robin to the wonder that is Netflix, and he'd been intrigued but confused. The concept was unusual for him, but he was adaptable and now it was a regular activity for them.

It isn't until tonight that she decides to show him the animated version of Robin Hood, and his responses are nothing short of hilarious.

"Why am I a fox, darling?" is his first question, to which she really has no reply. He had many about all of the characters being animals, actually.

"What did you think?" she asks when it's over.

"Well, I was much more heroic, of course," he says proudly. "But, all things considered, it could be worse. Look at Hook's fictional counterpart."

She laughs at that, loud and happy. He laughs with her and she feels the rumble of it against her cheek. She honestly can't remember ever being so free. Simply doing nothing with him is enough. No anger, no resentment. Sometimes she wakes in the morning and touches his face, just to know that he's real and that he truly loves her.

And when he gives her that familiar, dimpled smile, she knows that he does. Feels that it is true and unwavering.

They're fading into sleep when she hears a knock on the door.

She groans, but stumbles off the couch and toward the door anyway. Robin follows her.

She opens the door. "Whatever you have to say, hurry-"

Her breath catches in her throat. Daniel stands at the door, no older than the day that Cora crushed his heart.

She feels lightheaded. This can't be real. She fell asleep and now she's dreaming... but she's not. He's here, flesh and blood. For a moment, she's worried that he'll attack her - that he'll be as he was last time, breathing but in an agonized state. No more than a zombie.

But he looks normal, if old fashioned for this time period.

"Regina," he breathes. He moves, the intent to kiss her clear on his face, and she sees Robin's eyes widen in alarm in her peripheral vision as the realization of who this man is dawns on him.

Regina puts her hand on Daniel's chest to stop him and he halts, but looks confused.

"Where am I?" He asks, and there's something so boyish about his tone that it makes Regina want to reach out to him. She doesn't. She can't.

"Storybrooke, Maine," she answers calmly.

That doesn't help his confusion, but she's not sure where to start.

She turns to Robin and she's surprised when she sees a resigned look in his eyes. As if he's accepted something. He won't even look her in the eye. She doesn't like it at all, and she struggles to pull him back from whatever he's thinking. She grips one of his hands and doesn't miss the fact that Daniel follows the movement.

"Oh. Daniel, this is Robin. Robin, this is Daniel," she introduces, producing her sunniest smile. Like all of this is normal. And maybe it is, for Storybrooke.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Daniel's voice is polite as he outstretches a hand.

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance," Robin offers a tight smile and gives a firm hand shake.

There's an awkward silence that follows. One that she has no idea how to fill.

"I should go," Robin finally says.

"Robin, no. Wait," she reasons, knowing what he's doing and letting him know that he's wrong. This isn't going to end up like he thinks it will.

His eyes meet hers. "You two have a lot to catch up on, I'm sure."

There isn't anything venomous in his words, and somehow, that makes it worse. He can't be unkind, even when it's killing him.

And then his hand leaves hers and he's gone. Like a flame that is suddenly snuffed from a candle.

She feels cold all over. An ache forms in her chest that only seems to grow bigger by the minute.

"I'm sorry, did I miss something? Are you two betrothed?" Daniel asks, the tone of his question innocent and unassuming.

She chuckles at his wording, but it feels nothing like the way she had laughed with Robin. "Not exactly, but we're... together."

He looks slightly hurt, but he nods.

"You died, Daniel. My mother killed you," she doesn't know how to put it delicately.

"I recall that. It was very painful," he cringes. "But why am I alive? I gather that it's been a long time. You look very different. Still beautiful, but different."

She smiles sadly at him. He's still the same sweet boy she knew, the one she rode horses with and the one she had planned to run away with and marry, and it hurts. But she is not a child anymore, and her dreams are not the same.

"Yes, it has. Many years. As for why you're alive, I... I'm not sure."

She feels awful for him. He's in an entirely new world with people he doesn't know. He doesn't even know her anymore. She's happy to have him back, truly. She's spent so much of her life mourning his loss, wanting vengeance for his undeserved death. But now? When she's found her true love? It's complicated, to say the least.

"A woman named Emma told me of your whereabouts. She and another woman wanted to speak to you about a spell that she cast. Did you know about this?"

"Emma Swan?" she whispers, unable to hide the shock in her voice.

"I- I suppose so. She has blonde hair and green eyes, if that helps."

"Oh my God," she puts a hand over her mouth. "Okay, come with me. I need answers."

She grabs his hand and walks out the door, rushing to find out what's happening.

She doesn't see Robin, standing near the apple trees, watching.


End file.
